I have a question....

[Little Star]

Last edited Wed Mar 27, 2013, 09:58 AM - Edit history (1)

If you were going to be abandoned on a deserted island and could only take one fiction book series with you which one would you bring and why?

I think I would take the Spencer series by Robert B. Parker.

A few of the reasons I'd bring along the Spencer series are:
The series was well written.
I love Robert B. Parker (added points because wrote about MA)
I love Susan Silverman and Hawk
I've read and re-read the series at least 2 or 3 times already and never find it boring.
The series has 38 books and I figure it would be a good idea to chose a series with a lot of books.

What fiction series would you bring if you could only bring one?

[Scuba]

1. There's plenty of Spencer's to take, for sure, although they're a quick read ...

... it only takes me a little longer to read one than it took Parker to write it. He was spitting them out so fast when he died that several more were written before his fingers stopped moving.

Personally, I'd go with Michener, if I can call his works a "series". Or maybe WEB Griffin's "The Corps".

Spencer's fun to read though, that's for sure and Hawk's a great character. I noticed Parker's last hero had a sidekick called "Crow".

[Little Star]

7. There was no maybe/or in my question....

Ya gots to choose one, dammit!

[JayhawkSD]

2. The Lee Child series

regaling us with the adventures of ex-Major Jack Reacher.

There is quite a long time between books, because he won't slip into the trap of "just cranking them out," and each new one is as thoroughly a good as the one before it.

I will not, however, go to the movie in which Tom Cruise is horribly and ludicrously miscast as Jack Reacher. Size is only a minor issue. He is totally unfit to play the character.

[Little Star]

5. I'm with you on the Tom Cruise bit.....

But I've never read the Reacher series, I just don't much care for Cruise.

[fadedrose]

3. James D. Doss

and I'm already on that island...

No, I'm not on an island, I'm in Colorado/New Mexico in my mind - with Charlie Moon and Aunt Daisy.

[Little Star]

4. Ha! I would have never guessed that you would choose Doss, lol....

Do you know that they call his series by two names, the Charlie Moon Mysteries & the Shaman Mysteries? Ha again, of course you do. Now the question is why would you choose Doss?

lol, "I'm in Colorado/New Mexico in my mind - with Charlie Moon and Aunt Daisy". That's a pleasant place to be.

[Scuba]

9. Doss is good, thanks for reminding me of him!!

[fadedrose]

10. Thank God somebody else here likes him...

I got an email from someone whom I don't know. They don't seem to be posting anymore, but they had something like 22,000 posts in the past, but none in the last 90 days of that DU mail. They sent me DU mail and told me that from my post talking about Doss, they ordered the first 2 books from Amazon or somewhere, and ordered the next two. He and his wife have learned to love Doss, and they intend to read all of them.

He hasn't posted and that email is the only sign of his participation in DU. I hope he reads this. I really appreciated his letting me know of his liking for books I recommended in Fiction...

I remember the name and was able to look it up, Enthusiast.

[LWolf]

6. That decision would require a lot of research.

First, it would have to be a really long, long series with many, many titles.

Second, it would have to be something that improves with age and many readings.

[Little Star]

8. lol. I've been thinking on this for about a week now. It ain't easy.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. I'd enjoy rediscovering two series that are fairly complex:

1. Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe series. I love the characters, and the books are often intricately plotted. I read the early books a long time ago, although I read the last four or five as soon as they came out. I'd like to reread the story as an homage to the late Mr. Hill.

2. Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins series. I began reading this series about woman Anglican priest and her difficult teenage daughter because it takes place around Hereford, England, and I was about to join a group that attended the annual Three Choirs Festival there. It is a mystery series--with a twist. Merrily is appointed diocesan exorcist, in addition to her parish duties in a small village outside Hereford, and all the mysteries have a supernatural element. However, the supernatural element is always ambiguous.

[Little Star]

12. Which series has the most books in it? Remember...

you only get to bring one series to this island.

The number of books in the series was a huge factor in my decision.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. 24 books in the Dalziel and Pascoe series

as opposed to 11 or 12 in the Merrily Watkins series.

Alas, there will be no more Dalziel and Pascoe books, because Reginald Hill died last year.

[Little Star]

14. That's sad about Reginald Hill....

It's always hard when one loses one of their favorite authors. I know I was devastated when we lost Robert B. Parker. And fadedrose really, really had a hard time when James D. Doss died last year

[Curmudgeoness]

15. Can I take a lighter instead?

Actually, I have thought and thought, and I really don't do any series books...or at least very few. I will have to try a few that are listed here, but I am normally bored too easily to read many books by the same author and with the same characters.

But if I have to choose, I would figure that I could get through the Colleen McCullough Masters of Rome series if I have enough time. I am struggling to finish the first book, but it isn't that I am not enjoying it......it is just so foreign that it is taking a long time to conquer.

[DUgosh]

16. Agatha Raisen by MC Beaton

She makes me laugh

[SheilaT]

17. I'd hope I'd have the time to research and find a series

with at least fifty books and hope I'd be rescued before I'd run out of things to read.

While not a series, by definition, I'd go with all of the books written by Norah Lofts. For those of you unfortunates who have never heard of her, check her our. Her first book was about the Donner Party. Everything else thereafter was about a part of southwestern England, and tended to take place in and around a fictitious town she called Baildon. Her trilogy known as "The Town House" is amazing. Read it. Read everything she ever wrote. It's all amazing.

Another possible choice would be everything by Larry McMurtry. I've read most of his stuff, but not all, and I'd be willing to reread what I've read already.

I read a lot. I read voraciously. I read widely, both fiction and non fiction. It would be easier to tell you what I don't read (westerns, genre romances for the most part) than to tell you what I do read. If I were on a desert island I'd have the time to read at least a book every day. This is one of the few circumstances where I'd want some kind of e-reader, well loaded with books.

But, back to the original question, if forced to choose one and one only series, I'd probably go with the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child. But please, God, have me rescued inside of a month. Or give me a lot of paper and pens so I can maybe write myself.

My idea of Hell is a place where I can't read. I often joke that I hope there's an afterlife and that there are books there.

[getting old in mke]

18. Aubrey/Maturin, I think

O'Brian had a knack of telling a story with only about half of it there, so the books pay out dividends on revisiting as you fill in more and more if it.

Plus, Jack and Stephen were on deserted islands more than once. Maybe find some escape tips for when I finished the series another couple of times?

[Hula Popper]

19. Parker and Stout

come to mind for quick interest. I've found many authors recommended from here, but I think I'd take Donald Westlake! Lots and lots.